traffic

Asphalt Ribbons makes the case that it is a myth that American drivers are disrespectful and have more road rage than Canadian drivers.

The "war on the car" is over, so I imagine we will move with steady determination to remove all impediments to automobiles on all streets. We must solve traffic congestion for the sake of all taxpayers in this city. Everything that impedes traffic - bike lanes, speed humps, crosswalks, streetcars, stop signs and traffic lights - will be removed. NIMBYs have for too long pushed for traffic calming on their residential streets. No longer will we allow them to ruin the freedom of driving a car.

The Mayor has jumped onto the traffic congestion crisis bandwagon: "Toronto’s economy loses billions of dollars every year from gridlock and traffic congestion. We need to make the situation better – not worse." (for example, by adding another car lane to Jarvis).

http://vimeo.com/25991149

Video shooting and editing by Lisa Logan (a big thanks Lisa!). Herb of I Bike TO and Lisa are asking the questions. Produced for the Toronto Cyclists Union and the Save Jarvis campaign. Join the Bike Union and come out on July 12 and 13 to raise your voice in support of bike lanes in Toronto!

Dave Meslin organized a bike count a couple days ago to find out if the John Street Corridor EA's 2% bike mode share claim was correct or not. I joined the effort. What we found out, and suspected, was that it was quite unlikely that 2% could be accurate. The EA claimed that cycling rates on John Street were a steady 2%, morning, afternoon, weekday and weekend.

The Torontoist brought to our attention the City's release of 2010 data on pedestrian and cycling injuries and fatalities from collisions with motor vehicles (on the bottom of the Transportation Services page).

http://vimeo.com/19982736

Via the Bike-sharing blog, an animated video of "Boris Bikes" (as the BIXI bikes in London, UK have been nicknamed after Mayor Boris) by Dr. Martin Austwick at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis - University College London - being used in one day when the London tube was on strike.

As mass transit goes, one can see the expanded possibilities for short trips over a wide area.

An open letter to the Wheels Section of The Toronto Star by Hamish Wilson:

There is no reason to celebrate the gross waste of resources and environmental destruction of automobility, so aptly pictured on the cover of the Wheels 25th anniversary section.